Mega Moves & Maxi-Motion is a one-hour performance program that is designed specifically for family audiences. This high-flying, fast-paced show features selections from the company’s repertory that are chosen specifically to engage and entertain young children and are loaded with visual and aural delights. The show includes Artistic Director Ellen Sinopoli who introduces each dance and cues the audience on ideas and images to look for in each work. The program always contains a participatory element whether its children playing rhythms to accompany the dancers, coming up on stage to try a certain shape or calling out the names of specific movements every time they occur within a particular dance. Following the show, the dancers meet the audience and autograph company posters that are given to each young person.

Following is just a sampling of repertory that can be performed in Mega Moves & Maxi-Motion. The content of the show changes each time it is presented.

Animal Rhythms – ESDC partners with composer/percussionist Brian Melick in an exploration of animal movement (gazelle, giraffe and gibbon) through original live music.

“giraffes with long upraised arms, lumbering gibbons with humped shoulders and gazelles who flew about the stage” ~ Metroland

“Sinopoli brings together members of two tribes, the lindys and the moderns, and makes it smooth as a drugstore malt.” ~ Metroland

Compas – A dance delightfully filled with the singular energy and dynamic of the “compas” (groove) for Flamenco Tango, Siguiriya and Bulerias. Maria Zemantauski’s stunning musical composition is fused with an array of jazz and funk that takes the dancers and audience on a most enticing ride.

Oh My… - A whimsical suite of five mood swinging dances, inspired by snippets of prose collected by Sinopoli and the music from the classical crossover disc “Appalachia Waltz” by Edgar Meyer, Mark O’Connor and Yo-Yo Ma.

The Walk - A solo choreographed to music by Cornelius Duffalo of the string quartet Ethel that explores the styles of walking, but with a flair.

“[the dancer] was divine in this elegant dance in which she appears as a polished debutante practicing her entrance into the ball. She was gorgeous.” ~ Daily Gazette

Vooz-é-la - Set to four songs by Zap Mama whose eclectic mixture of styles hovers somewhere between soul, gospel, pygmy song and Afro-Cuban rhythms, ESDC’s dancers are propelled and inspired by the acrobatic female voices of these extraordinary singers.

“a gorgeous, juicy dance, one of Sinopoli’s best…crisp, sensual and pure fun all at once.” ~ Times Union

Excerpts of: From the mind / of a single, long vine / one hundred opening lives – Bold spirited choreography intertwines with a set of finely crafted sculptures. Exploring the archetypal stories of society, Sinopoli’s dance unearths and delves into the legends, secrets and anecdotes emanating from wood sculptor Jim Lewis’ African influenced designs.

"A near mystical effect ... dancers related so intimately to Jim Lewis' set of cedar objects that the dancers' bodies and the wooden benches and tools combined as powerful sculptures, part human, part glowing wood."~ Metroland

Coming & Going – Dancing to music by “Junkman” Don Knaack, the entire company blasts it way onto the stage with high-flying energy, and fearless athleticism.

Selchie – A fascinating work loosely based on the ancient Celtic myth of the seal people set to selections of infectious Irish music. With an option for the storyteller performing live, the dance begins with an opening solo filled with astonishing contortions of absorbing beauty and then winds its way to all the dancers flinging themselves through a joyous galloping romp.

"twisting into astonishing contortions, absorbed with its beauty...the sculptural lines, particularly those created by the arms and articulate hands, captured the eye"~ Daily Gazette

Relay – A fast paced energetic ensemble work.

"teams of 2, 4 and 6 dancers in salmon jumpsuits, run, roll, sink and tilt...it's a math game as they multiply and divide themselves into pairs and trios...propelled by thecomputer generated
score by Joel Chadabe"~Times Union